Input wanted

[Two corrections – thank you, Chorius and Spot.]

As I warned, I’d be tweaking my spec. I’m looking at this one, but there are some issues. Specifically – and as you can see – I’ve got one point left to spend. I’m opening the floor for recommendations. Please include “why”.

Some remarks to prevent you wasting effort, then some discussion of my actual changes as possible influence.

No, I am not going shadow. Or holy. I’m still tweaking a Disc build.

Yes, it’s not ideal for raids. It is primarily intended for PVP-BG. If I like it and get comfortable, it’ll go to Arenas — probably with a couple more tweaks, but [shrug].

Specific changes already made. After both experience and thought, I agree with a couple of commenters but not quite to their degree. I actually got a little out of reflective shield. Thing is, it never interrupts since it reacts after the fact to damage. And it doesn’t discourage attacks. I’m also not certain it’s damaging ranged attackers, but that, given the first two points, is relatively insignificant. So, that’s five points removed.

I topped off both mental agility and martyrdom – good talents that have already given solid benefit, and I think the additions will give me more. And one in an odd place that solves a small problem – one holy fire. Rank 1 holy fire [Nova] will cost me around 260 mana. If I pop it every 6 seconds or so I pretty much break even on mana. Which means if I even think a rogue might be around, pop goes the stealth. It won’t be perfect, but it’s one more point of frustration.

Again, that leaves one point. I’d considered, even, spirit tap. Blackout is a slim possibility — I’ve gotten to where I through starshards every chance (zero mana, why not) so there’s always a chance it’ll proc 1 or 2 times per BG. [nevermind. I got confused and forgot Blackout requires shadow damage to proc.]

Like this:

Related

9 Responses to “Input wanted”

I have admittedly little experience with the different priest builds (I have a disc/holy priest I’ve leveled to 49). I’d probably go for Force of Will to do more damage. In my experience Spot Snacks, I mean, priests tend to get squished pretty quick in BGs, so you may not get much of a chance to see the benefits of Spirit Tap. Although with a good team you’ll probably last longer and that mana regen would be very nice, but then again, you have to get the killing blow… If you end up healing more often than not I’d grab Holy Specialization, otherwise FoW is better. Or if you find yourself dispelling a lot, Absolution might be nice…

I don’t think Blackout will do anything for Starshards, isn’t it Arcane? Also, I think you mean Holy Nova, not Holy Fire?

I don’t think there is anything *wrong* with that talent build and at this point I think you are only building toward flavor and play style. The suggestions I could make I guess would be: (preface all this with IMO! )
1) Focused Power is of dubious effectiveness in a BG, especially for a healing priest. Its a must-have for arenas (and only then for the mass dispel RIGHT NOW), but to me it becomes second tier in BG’s, if not third. I would take those 2 points and likely put them into Divine Fury for the obvious benefit.
2. I’d take the Holy Nova point and also put it into Divine Fury.
3. I would then take 2 points from spell warding and put them into Holy Reach. (and would even give thought to ditching the other three points remaining in spell warding for somewhere else – maybe move those to reflective shield :)
But like I said, I don’t think there is anything wrong with what you have now. You are more asking us to input our flavor of play style to yours. Your ROI might vary!

@ Hildi – Focused Power is there for one reason – half-second cast of mass dispel, as you already noted. Thing is I’ve found that dropping it in the middle of a cluster fight has had highly amusing returns. Still, thanks for the comments – I’m still pondering.

2. Holy Nova is only going to pop a rogue *maybe*, it won’t save you my itself. You would save the point and a lot of aggravation by just putting yourself in better positions than by hoping you are going to glimpse that rogue before he locks you down. Plus, your shield, PS and scream can be way more effective. (again, my opinion based on my xp).
3. I never noticed much from spell warding in bg’s. In arenas I did a bit, but not bg’s. So lowering that somewhat and giving yourself more healing range is a better option imo.

Chorius already mentioned this, but if you’re using Mass Dispel enough to take Focused Power, then even putting points into Absolution might be nice. It would net you more for just 1 point than anything else on the big board.

For BG and Arena, with an extra point left over, I might suggest Silent Resolve (adds to the resists for when you have people trying to dispel your buffs) or if you’re planning on being healing support for your group/team and using GHeal, then looking at Divine Fury (cuts casting time) or Improved Healing (mana cost reduction).

Holy nova has quite a few uses. It actually is better than fear for keeping people from capping flags, because you can try to psychic scream but rogues and everyone else tends to just ignore fear. But spam a rank 1 holy nova at a flag will keep anyone from capping until reinforcements arrive.

As for popping rogues out of stealth.. it works about half the time, half the rogues are smart enough to get away then watch me (or mages) drain our mana for awhile. the other half are dumb enough to stand there. :)

I enjoy half second mass dispels whenever a pally is near. They should call that talent “chalice of pally tears” instead. I also use it on Curator actually, to dispel the slow on everyone.

Still unconvinced by by spell warding. My sense is that I just don’t take that much spell damage except when a strategic blunder has left me with rather more friends than I really want; what I do take is healable; mostly in BGs, they’re out of range. Might be of use in Arena, but in the melee/ranged/support battle lines that tend to evolve in BGs (especially in AV, where I assume you’ll be battle testing this weekend) 5 points in Divine fury is preferable. If you’re on offence and make it to d’rek…

Support topping off mental agility – didn’t realize you hadn’t in your last build, but I spent most of my leveling time as Disc, and regard that extra efficiency as central. Martyrdom: yes.

Holy nova: I have never, ever specced this. Does it trigger the GCD? Are you sure you want to lose that time every 6 seconds? Can you remember to spam it? Pretty damn sure I couldn’t :) Find a friendly warlock and get them to cast paranoia instead, and follow hildi’s advice.

If you’re heading towards utility, the extra point belongs in absolution. Mass dispel without inner focus is horribly expensive.

Spirit tap is a waste of space; don’t even consider it. If you’re using a grinding spec to pvp & switching between damage and healing (as I am at the moment) it is marginally useful with Spiritual Guidance. If you’re primarily dispelling/healing, it has no place. I’ve only seen it used really successfully in the 60-69 bracket, by a human priest stacking damage, spirit & SG, and I think only because the trade off between spirit and pvp gear is less pronounced at that level. (I watched him play twice; top 5 in healing and damage both times, and he was a genius at positioning) In short: unless you’re certain your sw:d timing is exquisite, and you re-engineer your entire spec to include SG, avoid spirit tap.

General Philosophy:
Utility is an unusual choice for BGs. I’ve only ever played with Pain Suppression when it was self castable – useful when there’s no-one better to run the flag in wsg, but I’m interested to know how you get on with it. Do you find you’re using it to heal tank or actually save others? For the dispel route – I cast mass dispel, sometimes, but untalented, it’s slow and expensive – any ideas about how to quantify the benefit? UA’s not often cast, but then, half way into most BGs few players are sporting any significant buffs. I get a lot of mileage out of single target dispel – casting on mages with freezing armour will actually cause them, sometimes, to freeze when they realize their primary kiting tool is gone – but on the mass melee scrimmage? Curious to know how you find it.

Have fun in AV, & I’m hoping for a gear post when the spec is finalised.

About…

I've experience with many priests of many races and specs on several servers. The more I play, the more I realize how much I do not yet know. This is a share of some of what I have learned.
My main these days is Zingiber on the Undermine server.